Protect Our Patriarch

Chapter 7 – Catching the red scaled eel

“Sixth uncle, these are all the secrets to the family’s rise to power, and everything is to be kept confidential.” Wang Shouzhe said solemnly.

He also decided to temporarily shelve his plan to share the Luya* (transliteration of the word “lure”) method with his uncle.

“I understand. I’ll be very careful. When the time comes, I’ll ask the family to assign two family generals to me.” Wang Dinghai was so excited that his entire body trembled.

“In addition, about that moving zither** method (purse seine), I’ve a couple of ideas. We can quickly transform the purse seine with a fishing net. Let’s try it out first. If it works ……”

His eyes gleamed, and he couldn’t wait to experiment.

The Wang clan’s territory ranged from the Dingpu ferry port to the rocky shore. Ordinary people would not and dared not approach the riverbank. After all, the riverbanks were undeveloped, they were just simply cleared and there were hidden dangers.

Moreover, this section of the river had nine bends with an unknown number of remote and secluded places.

After being inspired by Wang Shouzhe, Wang Dinghai was bursting with plans and ideas.

With Wang Shouzhe agreement, Wang Dinghai took the boat all the way to a small hidden dock along the river. Every small dock here was a secret stronghold which can be used for a variety of purposes.

After all, the cunning rabbit had three caves, so the Wang clan’s fishing fleet should be similarly clever and cunning.

There was a hidden wooden hut by the small pier, a rest place to shelter from the wind and waves, etc. Wang Dinghai placed Wang Shouzhe and Gongsun Hui in the humble hut, left Wang Guodan to serve them, and rushed off.

“This is the first time I’ve seen sixth uncle acting in such an energetic and vigorous manner.” Gongsun Hui sighed with emotion, “Zhe’er, it looks like the fishing ideas you provided will work very well.”

“They’re all from ancient books and need to be tested. I hope they’ll be useful to the family.” Wang Shouzhe smiled lightly, and then asked Wang Goudan, “Goudan, can you roast fish?”

“Yes.” Wang Goudan smartly nodded, “Clan, Patriarch, this servant is going to grill some fish.” After that, he ran out.

When only Gongsun Hui and Wang Shouzhe were left, she scrutinized him carefully, frightening him out of his wits.

She sighed with emotion, “Zhe’er, you’ve changed. You seemed to have become unrestrained and extremely confident.

“In the past, with a heavy burden on your shoulders, you would just focus on cultivation and disregarded everything else. If I didn’t watch you grow up, I would have suspected that you had been swapped.”

“Madam must be joking. In the past, when my father was in charge, I could naturally ignore everything.”

Wang Shouzhe said with a calm expression and sighed, “But now that my father had passed away and the family’s situation had become so bad, what will happen to the Wang clan if I don’t get my act together?

“Madam, let’s not talk about this. You’ve had a long journey, take a rest, and look forward to sixth uncle’s surprise later.”

Wang Shouzhe took control of the situation and took the initiative to end the conversation. Then, he closed his eyes to rest.

About half an hour later, Wang Goudan returned with a few golden grilled fish which smelled delicious!  Wang Shouzhe took out two large copper coins and threw them at Goudan, “Your reward, wait outside.”

“Thank you, Patriarch, thank you, Patriarch.” Wang Goudan ran out happily.

He shared the grilled fish with Gongsun Hui. Although Wang Goudan’s cooking skills were average, and he only sprinkled some coarse salt, the ingredients were fresh and of high quality. The amazed Wang Shouzhe ate the delicious food happily.

It was a first for Gongsun Hui to eat such unrefined food. To her surprise, the food was incredibly delicious.

Just as they finished eating, they heard Wang Dinghai shouting excitedly outside the hut, “Shouzhe, fifth sister-in-law, come out and take a look.”

The two of them left the hut and walked towards the small pier where they saw that Wang Dinghai had already set up a simple purse seine according to his own conceptualisation.

Good guy, Wang Shouzhe lifted his eyebrow when he saw this. The four poles were an arm’s length, while the main pole was even thicker than a thigh.

This thing was too cumbersome, it was around 150 to 200 kgs, and an earthling would never be able to wield the fishing gear.

Yet, the Wang Dinghai standing on the wooden pier lifted the heavy net out of the water easily by just exerting a bit of an effort by combining the strength of his waist and legs.

Oh, I forgot he was a fifth level Qi Refining Realm Xuanwu practitioner, and his strength was 10 times greater than that of an earthling.

“Boom!”

A large fish was caught in the net. It violently blasted the water to escape but was prevented from escaping by the net. Before the fish could repeat its action, the net was pulled out of the water.

The fish laid in the middle of the net, waiting to be slaughtered. In addition, they also caught several smaller fish of between 0.5 to 1.5 kg.

“Fantastic!”

All the surrounding fishermen were shouting excitedly! Everyone lent a hand and made poles to mimic the fishing method. Although it was a worthless red carp, it weighed around 3 to 3.5 kg and could fetch 10 cents. At the same time, it also proved the effectiveness of the purse seine method.

Then, under Wang Shouzhe’s personal guidance, Wang Dinghai made further improvements to the purse seine, by adding chuck and counterweights.

The principle was very simple, it was the same as a seesaw on earth. However, this seesaw was triangular in shape, with two tops connected by a cable. A suitable counterweight was placed at the other end of the seesaw. As long as light pressure was applied, the net could be lifted out of the water.

This time, it took more than two hours before everything was ready. It was already night-time, but group’s enthusiasm remained high. It only took half an incense stick to get the net up once, and it doesn’t require much effort.

Of course, it was impossible to avoid empty nets. However, with night-time, many fish were beginning to take advantage of the darkness to search for food along the shore, which was more plentiful than in the centre of the river.

“Boom!” “Wow!”

After a few empty nets, there would be a boom, and a big fish or something would be netted. Occasionally, there would be two or three fish in the net. These excited the fishermen and Wang Dinghai to no end.

“Shouzhe, we’re rich! we’re rich!” Wang Dinghai, who was holding a torch, reported ecstatically, “Just now, we set up 30 nets in an hour, five fish escaped but we caught nine big fish, and there are countless small and medium-sized catches.”

In just one hour, they netted 50 kg of fish which could fetch 10 big copper.

Wang Shouzhe was slightly confused by such poor catches. After all, this was a Xuanwu world where its resources were much better than the earth.

However, subsequently, Wang Dinghai said it was currently the peak period for the fishing season, night-time was the best time to catch fish, and netting such catches was reasonable.

“This thing is much more powerful than casting nets.” Wang Dinghai said excitedly, “We get quite good catches from casting nets, but a physically strong fisherman can cast at most 100 nets in a day before he runs out of energy.

“But this new tool doesn’t require much physical effort or skill. Two fishermen can be arranged to work in shifts of 12 hours a day. It’s way safer too, because the riverbank is less dangerous than going to the centre of the river.”

“That’s right but you’ve overlooked one advantage, that is, it’s easy to replicate.”

Wang Shouzhe said in a very good mood, “Sixth uncle, find a couple of skilled craftsmen from the family tomorrow to modify this simple tool, and then, gradually push it out to make more money during the fishing season this year.”

“The most important thing is confidentiality.” Gongsun Hui added, “Sixth uncle, don’t just simply recruit anyone. Try to find reliable helpers from our kinsmen.”

The 3-party conversation went on…

Suddenly!

“Boom!” there was a loud blast of water.

Wang Goudan roared, “Master Hai, quick, come quickly!”

The three of them looked over and saw a huge, long, snake-like creature trapped in the net. It was so violent that even after being lifted out of the water by two adult fishermen operating the purse seine, it continued to struggle wildly in the net, shaking the entire stand.

“It’s a red-scaled eel!” Wang Dinghai was wild with joy, but in the blink of an eye, his expression changed drastically, “Not good, it’s going to break the net!”

The red-scaled eel’s sharp teeth bit into the hole of the net. Its body twisted and trashed wildly, and in an instant, it tore a large hole in the net. Then, the fish trashed and tried to escape.

Without a word, Wang Dinghai dived into the water, and speedily swam towards the net.

Just as the red-scaled eel was about to escape from the net, he stretched out his big hand and grabbed it by its neck. His right hand pulled out the water-splitting stinger.*** Viciously, he plunged the stinger straight into its head.

But even so, the red-scaled eel still wrapped itself around him, trashing desperately as it was extremely vigorous. It took a full incense stick before the fish finally died.

Wang Dinghai dragged it ashore and laid it on the pier. The red scaled fish was more than 6.5m long, and the thickest part was thicker than an adult man’s thigh.

“An aquatic beast of the first order, the red-scaled eel. Sixth uncle, this must be an adult red-scaled eel. Does it weigh 50 kg?” Wang Shouzhe and Gongsun Hui looked at the fish curiously.

“Hahaha, more than that, this one is at least 75 kg, worth at least 30 to 50 Qian gold.” Wang Dinghai sat on the ground panting, his eyes gleamed with excitement.

“If this fierce fish escaped into the river, your sixth uncle might not be able to capture it. But this red-scaled eel is full of treasures.

“Patriarch, you have brought us good fortune today! Hahaha, I’ll show off at Dingpu Ferry port tomorrow!”